


shrugging off the dust and memory

by redledgers



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Barton family farm, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 09:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redledgers/pseuds/redledgers
Summary: The farm is a place of recovery, even now. Maybe it was always meant to be that way, at least that's what Laura thinks when James and Natasha show up on their doorstep.





	shrugging off the dust and memory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andibeth82](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andibeth82/gifts).



“You know, Clint brought Natasha here about fifteen years ago.” Laura passes the one-armed man beside her another plate, and he takes it willingly, setting it on to the counter to wipe it dry. She plunges her hands back into the warm sudsy water and keeps washing. It may have been a long time ago, but she remembers it like it was yesterday. Clint had shown up on the doorstep with a frightened girl and no excuses. And while James wasn’t necessarily _frightened_ when Natasha had shown up with him, it was an all too familiar scene.

James puts the plate in the cabinet and waits for another. “Oh?” He’s been a man of few words for the past two weeks, but Natasha had said that was standard for him, that it was his solace and level ground the same way it was hers.

“Of course back then I thought she was just a teenager, but it turns out some of you age more slowly than the rest of us.” She shuts off the water and hands him the final plate. That earns her a smile, something that was starting to come easier to him these days, and not just when he was with Natasha.

“Yeah, I guess some of us do.” He wipes his hand on the towel and hangs it on the stove handle. For a moment, he looks like he’s about to bolt, but it fades and she can see him cataloguing the kitchen, the living room, looking for something to do to focus his restless mind. James wasn’t Natasha, nor was he one of her own children. His mind was uncharted territory still, and Laura wasn’t able to figure him out, not yet.

“Mommy, I’m thirsty.” Most of the time, Laura was grateful to have children, especially when she finds herself at a loss for what to say. They always seemed to have a knack for derailing any conversation, often when it was most needed. Lila stands by the couch, clutching one of her stuffed toys.

Before Laura can step back to the sink, James has already grabbed a glass and is filling it. He crosses into the living room and crouches down to hand Lila the water. She takes it with a smile. “Thank you.” Laura thinks the smile James returns is genuine.

But a school night is a school night, so Laura goes over to her daughter. “Lila baby, do you want to take that upstairs with you?” Lila nods. Laura hugs her and ushers her up the stairs, checking in on Nate while she was there before returning to the living room.

When she gets back downstairs, James is standing at the window, looking out at the old barn. “You could go out there, you know.” Laura folds her arms and walks over to stand beside him. Clint and Natasha had been going out there after the kids went to sleep to spar, but every time, James had declined their invitation.

“I trained her. Natalia. Natasha.” It isn’t the response Laura is expecting, but it isn’t that surprising. She’d been briefed on where he was from enough to know he had been a friend of Steve’s, had known Natasha when she was young, and had only recently broken free of his chains. “It doesn’t feel right that she’s training me.” Or re-training. Or just helping. But neither of them had known any better, that much was clear.

“I don’t see it that way, and I don’t think she does either.” Rediscovering wasn’t about training. It was about learning a new normal and establishing new boundaries. And sometimes, in Natasha’s case, those boundaries expanded in ways none of them expected.

“I can see why she loves it here,” he says softly after a moment. He looks at her, and in the dim light, Laura thinks she sees what might be tears in his eyes. “She told me on the way here that it was the safest place on this planet.”

Laura laughs. “It feels like it sometimes.” She can’t imagine that it’s safer than any compound, with it’s security protocols and safe rooms and weapons stashes. But to someone who spent their life in that environment, it probably never felt safe, not in the truest sense. Clint had always said this place was his freedom. She puts her hand on his shoulder and for once James doesn’t flinch at a foreign touch. “You’ll always be welcome here. Even when you two leave. That’s my one condition for letting you stay here in the first place.” An open door for the strays her family brought home.

“I’d like that, I think.” The nighttime sounds of the farm fill the silence between them before he speaks again. “Thank you.”

Laura can’t imagine the Winter Soldier as anything other than a man looking for a place to belong, a person to be. The same way she could never see the Black Widow as anything other than a girl forced to do what it took to survive until she realized she had another choice. And when Clint and Natasha return from their workout, Laura stays near the window and watches James relax as Natasha hugs him goodnight and shoos him upstairs with a tired but fond smile. She doesn’t miss Natasha mouthing “Thank you” in her direction before she ducks into the bathroom behind the stairs to change. No, Laura couldn’t imagine anything else other than what she had right then.


End file.
